Is it crazy to buy a second place

Well

Just looking for some opinions on my current situation

In 2005 I bought a nice little house. It was actuallly a foolish decision as I didn't live there very long before realising that the area, although nice, wasn't for me - but I guess I was tired of renting (and house sharing) and wanted to have a bit more control of my environment.
Anyway I didn't stay there long as I found it quite lonely - moved out shortly after and rented it out. Now it's not a bad house, I've had quality tenants there, the rent has pretty much paid the mortgage and I'm not in negative equity yet. (This is partly because I came into some money which helped me to buy the place)

I have however invested quite a bit of money into improving the place which has not been reflected in the capital value.

To be honest, I don't see myself living there again unless I have no choice.
I suppose my thinking is to stick with it for the long haul, have the tenants pay my mortgage (I'm a very decent and conscientious landlord by the way) and hopefully at some stage down the future be able to sell it and hopefully make some sort of profit off it.

However, I have been renting since and am again quite tired of it and have started looking at places on myhome and daft.
I have a fairly secure job, am generally financially astute (apart from buying that house), have saved up decent amount in the past 4 years.

So I am thinking of buying again, not right now but maybe in a year or so, depending on the market. I will therefore be getting into a situation where I have 2 mortgages. Am I crazy? Should I be shaken roughly and told to cop myself on?

The thing is, my current thinking is to keep the house I bought as an investment for the long term (min 10 years I'd imagine).
I really don't want to live in rented accommodation for that long myself. (I don't think that renting dead money or anything - but I'm just tired of somebody else having so much control over my environment)

The other option is sell the first place, chalk up the money I invested to experience (as I said currently not in negative equity), and try to buy another place with the freedom of no other mortgage. (again I'll be pretty patient about buying)

Any advice, thoughts, opinions???

Thanks

Very difficult to say whether you are crazy or not without knowing what is approx value of existing mortgage, amount remaining, salary, rent on existing, amount you plan to spend on new property etc.. please provide more details and can then make some recommendations

chlipps said:

Very difficult to say whether you are crazy or not without knowing what is approx value of existing mortgage, amount remaining, salary, rent on existing, amount you plan to spend on new property etc.. please provide more details and can then make some recommendations

Click to expand...

Well didn't want to go into too many specifics - mainly as it's more of a speculative question at the moment - won't be buying today or tomorrow....

But

Approx value of existing mortgage (I'm guessing you mean value of property)
A similiar house on the same street is on the market at €270k - what the eventual selling price will be ..who knows

Amount remaining approx €215k..maybe a bit less

Salary - 55k (55 base, bonus up to 15% which I always got until this damn recession happened)

Renting on existing €1000pm - mortgage repayments currently less than €800

New property - well I've seen 3 3-beds on a street I like on the market at €350k

Think of worst case scenario, if a time came that you had no tenants, how would handle paying two mortgages?

As for not having control over the environment you're in, maybe you could rent a place with no furniture and furnish it yourself?

Have you saved enough to pay a decent deposit on house 2?

Have you considered the possibility of stamp duty clawback on house 1?

Is house 1 objectively easily rentable and have rents dropped in the area- is there much rental competition?

How secure is your job?

All factors to be considered.